"Shuttle's high-end barebone looks to be the ideal choice for users in need of a small and elegant system, but without the time or expertise to build one on their own from scratch. It provides all the necessary components, including a strong 80 PLUS Silver PSU, a solid mainboard, which allows for basic overclocking, a reliable and silent-enough cooling system, and all the necessary cables. You only need to choose a CPU, some RAM, and a storage device, and, if gaming is a mainstay, a discrete graphics card. The support for VGAs of up to 267mm in length and the strong PSU allow for a very strong gaming system if you pick the proper graphics card." – techPowerUp

"The Shuttle SZ170R8 have been an interesting test subject here today. Not only because we are talking about a mini PC which can contain some of todays top hardware with the option of installing a dedicated graphics card." – Tweak.dk

"High End Award: With the SZ170R8, Shuttle has eliminated some of the compatibility with somewhat unused hardware nowadays like optical drives and made some serious space for installing no less than four 3.5’’ drives inside the 14.2 litre chassis. A fan was also added in front in order to cool these but also for facilitating a more fluent airflow from the front to the back of the case [...]" – Madshrimps

"This is an impressive barebones system which is really nicely designed and can pack some powerful components." – techradar